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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Back from Hiatus and Hurting

It is the Year 2015!

... or is it?

State of Mind

The last entry in this blog was in 2013 when I called out IT Managers for the poor job they do. Naively, I was hoping for some recognition that there is a preferred practice for Management in IT, and that as Managers we should strive to do better, building on established and verified wisdoms.Now, two years on, things are even worse. More waste, denial, and all round simpleton stupidity is as rife as always in this business of IT. Hence, a new Blog name: "This Cannot be IT!"

This industry has no shortage of satire. However, my own career mind-space has deteriorated to the point where I am on the brink of distancing myself from a twenty-year career, to take up ice cream vending at a small beach in Mexico. Call it a midlife crisis, but I cannot fathom perpetuating the delusion one more year. It is not funny to me anymore. This is my requiem.There is no way one can continue with another decade in the same vain: Dancing the "corporate dance", quoting the buzzwords, nodding the head in manufactured agreement, thanking the backrubbers, despising the backstabbers, sitting in endless meeting after time wasting talkfest (meeting), all while being expected to keep the seat warm and to "remain nice" (This one particularly irks me!). I once commented to a colleague that middle management acts like a troop of baboons: "Grooming each other". With this mind image, I've not been able to look at meetings in the same way ever again.

A blog post got me fired before (guess which one?), and I am probably going to upset a few people, personally and corporately, with what I am about to post. The next Blog entries may completely alienate me from colleagues, all future association, and IT related income. But, unless I call it out (removing the names to protect the innocent), I feel I am merely perpetuating the pain - my pain. It is driving me nuts!

For You

Maybe, just maybe you will find my rants amusing. I hope to entertain you. Maybe you recognize truth in it, identify with it, and like me, naively belief it can be addressed if it is called out. Who knows, maybe you have a story of your own you may want to share in anonymity. This can be the "Snowden Files of Corporate IT Idiocy".

Why do it, you may ask? Here's the answer: If one gives oneself out as an expert in a field, it is one's duty to purge the field from charlatans, mediocrity and stupidity, while contributing to a body of knowledge for all its benefactors - customers and colleagues alike. Maybe, by calling out the Emperor's Clothes, someone else recognizes it for what it is. Maybe, there are opportunities where the good can be preserved, and the sacred be restored. If not, see you at the beach...Hendrik van Wyk